Thestar.com
Sat Sep 15, 2001 - Updated at 09:33 AM
Sep. 15, 2001. 03:26 AM
Hijackers set down roots, blended in, then attacked
Nicolaas van Rijn
STAFF REPORTER
TERRORISTS: Mohammed Atta, left, and Marwan Al-Shehhi were part of a
well-funded network.
RELATED LINKS
· The real bin Laden (The New Yorker, 1998)
· Hunting bin Laden (PBS' Frontline)
· Declassified security documents on Osama bin Laden
(thesmokinggun.com)
· FBI's Most Wanted - Usama bin Laden
· U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
· U.S. State Department's case against bin Laden
· Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska
· Terrorism Research Center
Nineteen men, any one of whom could have been your next door
neighbour. A support network of 50 to 100 others, aided by a
well-funded organization that stretched across four continents.
As an FBI task force of 7,000 agents and other investigators continue
to press forward with the largest criminal investigation in American
history, the stealthy face of the four terrorist cells that were
involved in Tuesday's massive attack on the United States is gradually
beginning to be revealed.
They played soccer. Mowed their lawns. Some brought their families and
lived on neat residential streets, leaving their garage doors open
when they left home. They ate pizza, and a few occasionally went
drinking at strip bars. They took their kids to school, waved at the
neighbours, put out their trash, and drove SUVs and Plymouth Voyagers.
``If he was dangerous, he never showed it while living here,'' said
Hank Habora, who lived across the street from one of the men in Vero
Beach, Fla. ``But it kind of makes you nervous, thinking that they
lived next door all that time.''
The men, all apparently from the Middle East. Their ages, all
apparently in their 20s and 30s. And, after painstakingly thorough
interviews with neighbours, store clerks and rental agents, the
incredible fact that some of them had been in the United States for
five years or more, hiding in plain sight as they trained at American
flight schools for Tuesday's massive killing blow against New York's
World Trade Center and Washington's Pentagon.
``These guys didn't just show up out of the dark on the morning they
struck their blow against America,'' an FBI agent in the Miami field
office said yesterday. ``They've been here, some of them for years,
planning this, getting ready for this, polishing their flying skills.
``They demonstrated incredible discipline and patience, aided and
abetted, in a sense, by the American way of life - open, free,
democratic.''
The United States has singled out Saudi-born extremist Osama bin Laden
as a chief suspect in the case and Secretary of State Colin Powell
warned nations that if they harboured terrorists they could be at
risk.
``Everything so far continues to point to bin Laden,'' said one U.S.
official. ``Iraq doesn't seem to be panning out, and the same thing
with Iran.''
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said information
gleaned from the early stages of the investigation indicated that at
least some members of the four terrorist cells carefully set down
roots in local communities, blending into the neighbourhood and
impressing the people next door as ``just plain folk,'' as one woman
said. ``Quiet, but friendly, and open - or so we thought.''
That's how bin Laden's terrorist cells typically operate, officials
said, adding one of the hallmarks of bin Laden's plots is to place
people in a community with orders to establish a local network and lay
the groundwork for an attack that is never completely spelled out to
them.
Yesterday, the FBI released the names and some of the information it
had compiled on the 19 hijackers involved in the attacks on the World
Trade Centre's twin 100-storey towers and the massive concrete
structure of the Pentagon.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said his agency had a ``high level of
confidence'' that most of the 19 names were real and not aliases.
Aboard American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 bound from Boston's
Logan airport to Los Angeles, and flown into the north tower of the
World Trade Center with the loss of 92 passengers and crew: Satam Al
Suqami, Waleed M. Alshehri, Wail Alshehri, Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz
Alomari.
Aboard American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 bound from
Washington's Dulles airport to Los Angeles, flown into the Pentagon
with the loss of 64 passengers and crew: Khalid Al-Midhar, Majed
Moqed, Nawaq Alhamzi, Salem Alhamzi and Hani Hanjour,
Aboard United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767 bound from Boston to
Los Angeles, flown into the south tower of the World Trade Center with
the loss of 65 passengers and crew: Marwan Al-Shehhi, Fayez Ahmed,
Ahmed Alghamdi, Hamza Alghamdi, and Mohald Alshehri.
Aboard United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 bound from Newark, N.J.
- across the river from New York - to San Francisco, diverted to an
unknown target in Washington and brought down by as-yet unknown means
in rural Pennsylvania with the loss of 45 passengers and crew: Saeed
Alghamdi, Ahmed Alhaznawi, Ahmed Alnami and Ziad Jarrahi.
American officials yesterday, speaking only on condition of anonymity,
said they have linked four of the dead hijackers - Waleed Alshehri,
Ahmed Alghamdi, Hamza Alghamdi and Saeed Alghamdi - to bin Laden's
Al-Qaida network.
_________________________________________________________________
There is no hard evidence yet that any of them crossed into the United
States from Canada.
But many American investigators are convinced of a Canadian
connection, and say interviews with some residents of border areas in
the northeast back them up.
One, the owner of a gas station in tiny Jackman, Me., along a
particularly isolated route linking Quebec city to western Maine, said
he vividly recalls an encounter with four Arab men on Aug. 17.
Having once worked in the Middle East, 46-year-old Raymond Stevens
said he was able to converse briefly in Arabic with four men who said
they were from Saudi Arabia.
Three were in Western dress and one in ``more traditional dress,'' he
said.
Investigators have requested passenger manifests from two ferries
operating between Yarmouth, N.S., and Maine.
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien continues to insist that American
investigators have not yet been able to demonstrate a Canadian link.
Despite that, officials in New England maintain that several of the
terrorists crossed into the U.S. from Canada using remote border
crossings in Maine.
At least one took a ferry to Maine from Nova Scotia, they say. And at
least two of the hijackers crossed the border at Coburn Gore, Me.,
where a single immigration inspector usually takes care of everything
that passes by on the two-lane road outside.
_________________________________________________________________
It's a familiar pattern, a staple of spy literature, and so simple and
effective that it invariably fails to trigger the suspicions of local
authorities: Infiltrate a `sleeper' agent into the community, let him
go about his daily business, becoming part of the scenery, while he
trains for his role in a mission he may know nothing about.
Bin Laden is a past master at the game.
Before the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing in Kenya, bin Laden operatives
married local women, collected information on potential targets,
rented houses, and purchased equipment. Later, a commander sent from
Afghanistan arrived in Kenya to oversee the last-minute procedures.
According to the Boston Globe, Waleed Alshehri arrived in the United
States in 1996, settling in Daytona Beach where he studied flying at
Embry-Riddle Aeronautics University, a four-year institution
considered to be a leader in training pilots.
He graduated in 1997 with a degree in aeronautical science - and the
skills to handle a commercial jetliner.
And he didn't stand out. The university says its student body
represents more than 100 nations, many of them in the Middle East.
``A very mild-mannered person, small in structure,'' is how
61-year-old Frank Richey, an Embry-Riddle professor who was
interviewed by the FBI, remembers Alshehri.
``He seemed to be very friendly. He was probably one of the last
persons I'd expect to do something like this. He didn't appear to be a
religious fanatic at all.''
And he was motivated.
``He wanted to be a professional pilot,'' Richey added. ``I could tell
he was well educated. He was an A or B student, and you don't get
those types of grades here without being a quality student.''
His arrival, investigators say, shows that the planning to train
suicide pilots began in 1996, if not earlier.
Over the next five years, various numbers of the suicide pilots
arrived in Florida to train for their kamikaze missions at the many
flight schools there.
They blended right in, some of them even sacrificing one of the
strictest tenets of their Muslim faith - the one against consuming
alcohol - as they became part of the community.
Some knew one another and lived as neighbours in comfortable homes on
quiet streets.
Some brought their wives and children with them, took shopping trips
to the mall in their Plymouth Voyagers, enrolled their children in
local schools and played computer games with the local children.
And, once in a while, a few of them would withdraw to the local bar,
where they'd ring up hefty bar bills while ogling the strip dancers
writhing on the poles onstage.
Most of the Florida suspects, the men who went in for flight training,
lived like college students in rented rooms and had little or no
history of employment.
A few brought their families with them and settled into quiet
residential streets.
None of them worked, but they could all, somehow, afford expensive
flight training, some of it costing up to $25,000 (U.S.), and paid
cash for other expenses, like renting single-engine airplanes for
90-minute training flights at $133 a pop.
``Somebody other than these guys was paying the bills,'' said a U.S.
Justice Department source.
One of the students, Abdulaziz Alomari - believed to be one of the
four terrorist pilots who commandeered American Airlines Flight 77 for
its fatal flight into the World Trade Center's North Tower - arrived
in Vero Beach, Fla., in July, 2000 to study at FlightSafety
International.
Claiming to be a Saudi pilot Alomari signed a $1,400-a-month lease to
rent one of the pastel stucco houses than line 57th Terrace, settling
next door to another Saudi student, Adnan Zakaria Bukhari, and just a
few kilometres from Amer Mohammed Kamfar, another friend.
Neighbours watched the men come home each day dressed in the signature
white shirts and gold-and-black epaulets that identified them as
FlightSafety trainees.
They had large, beautiful families, according to the neighbours. And
while they didn't often engage in lengthy conversations, they were
friendly, offering a wave and a hello as they came and went.
And they didn't seem in the least mysterious.
``They weren't hiding anything,'' said Ray DeFossez, a truck driver
who lives across the street from the Bukharis and Alomaris, recalling
that they usually left their garage doors open when they left home.
``They were just regular people, didn't make a lot of noise,'' said
another neighbour, Hank Habora. ``From their trash, you could see that
they shopped at Wal-Mart and ate a lot of pizza.''
_________________________________________________________________
Some of the terrorists arrived in the United States after spending
time in Germany.
On Thursday, German police raided an apartment in Hamburg, where
Mohammed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi studied electronics and
construction engineering at university and occupied a second-floor
apartment where groups of 20 men met regularly into the night.
As a young student, Atta wore stylish black jeans and hung out near
the Cinemaxx multiplex at Sharky's Billiard Bar in a Hamburg suburb.
While studying he also worked as a car salesman to make ends meet.
After graduating with a master's degree in urban renewal in 1999, Atta
stayed in Hamburg, becoming more religious and attending an Islamic
study group.
But in Kay Nehm, chief federal prosecutor, said Atta and Al-Shehhi
formed a terrorist cell to launch ``spectacular attacks'' on American
institutions.
Atta died on American Airlines Flight 11; Al-Shehhi was killed on
United Airlines Flight 175, both of which slammed into the World Trade
Centre's twin towers.
``It's highly likely that the clues needed to solve this mystery lie
in student circles in Germany,'' Nehm told a press conference. Both
Atta and Al-Shehhi had the necessary training to at least steer the
big Boeing jets that slammed into the World Trade Centre. Both men had
lived and trained at American flight schools.
FBI investigators learned that Atta and Al-Shehhi also took two
three-hour courses at SimCenter Inc. in Opa-locka, said Brian George,
son of flight school owner Henry George.
``We were completely stunned and shocked,'' Brian George said
Thursday. Both men trained on a Boeing 727 full-motion simulator, he
said.
Both had commercial pilot licences.
_________________________________________________________________
When the time came, the terrorist cells cleared out quickly.
About two weeks ago the family of Amer Mohammed Kamfar - a wife who
wore a traditional chador, the full-length traditional garment; four
children and possibly an infant - disappeared in a flash.
They discarded much of their clothing and other belongings in the
trash.
Then a van pulled up to the house, honked, and the family got in and
drove off. Police are still looking for Kamfar, who did not board the
hijacked jets.
Another rushed off to Rooms to Go, a furniture store in Vero Beach,
and as news of the kamikaze attacks was breaking on a television in
the showroom, bought a $1,795 living room set and ordered it shipped
to Saudi Arabia immediately.
Later arrested by the FBI, Bukhari insisted he was not involved, and,
according to two sources, passed an FBI-administered polygraph test
showing ``no deception.''
_________________________________________________________________
On the night of Sept. 7 - three days before the attacks on New York
city and Washington - Atta, Al-Shehhi and an unidentified man repaired
to Shuckums, a sports bar in Hollywood, Fla..
While Atta played video games the other two had about five drinks each
and then argued about the $48 bill.
Manger Tony Amos recalled this week that, when he inquired whether
they could not afford their bill, Al-Shehhi ``looked at me with an
arrogant look.''
``He pulled out a wad of cash,'' Amos said, ``and put it on the bar
table and said `There is no money issue. I am an airline pilot.' ''
At the Pink Pony and Red Eyed Jack's Sports Bar in Daytona Beach,
manager John Kap called FBI after Tuesday's terrorist attacks and told
agents about the anti-American invective spewed by three men in his
bar just the night before.
Agents on Wednesday took credit card receipts, copies of the men's
drivers licenses and a Qur'an left at the bar, Kap said.
He declined to identify the three men, but said that all three had
central Florida addresses and spent a few hundred dollars on lap
dances and drinks between 11 p.m. on Monday and about 2 a.m. on
Tuesday, hours before the attacks.
``They were talking about what a bad place America is,'' Kap recalled.
``There were a lot of anti-American things being said,'' he added.
``At one point, one of the gentlemen said, `Wait until tomorrow,
America is going to see bloodshed.' ''
He now wishes he'd taken them seriously.
_________________________________________________________________
With files from Star wire services